Five Elements of Massachusetts Aviation History

Who - The People:
Pioneers, pilots, experimenters, engineers, technicians, planners, entrepreneurs and personalities of flight in Massachusetts.

Where - Places: The early days:
Boston was one of three major “Aeronautical “Circles” of 1890-1903 (with Chicago and Dayton) and the Massachusetts connection and contributions to World aeronautical progress.

First Massachusetts Flying Fields and Airports:
Plum Island, Ipswich, Squantum, Saugus, Waltham, Framingham, Lynn, Taunton, East Boston.

Aircraft Factories and Test Sites:
Marblehead, Swampscott, Jamaica Plain, Hyde Park, Squantum, Waltham, Cambridge, Milton, E. Boston

Aero Event Locations:
Aero-Firsts, Exhibits, Aero Meets, Incidents, Historic Markers.

What: Planes and Power plants:

Aircraft:

Kites, free and controlled balloons, LTA blimps, rigid airships Gliders, sailplanes, ultralights, paragliders Sport parachuting, personal aircraft, homebuilt, and antique aircraft Commercial airplanes, autogiros, helicopters and STOL aircraft Related construction locations: factory built, club built, “barn/garage/boathouse” built.

Powerplants:
Rotary engines-- Hendee, Springfield
Radial air cooled--Framingham Forge for P&W
Water Cooled - Sturtevant, Hyde Park
Jet propulsion – General Electric Lynn Works
Turboprop, - General Electric Lynn Works

When:
See “Chronology of Aviation and Aerospace Events” The Forty Aviation Firsts 1757 - 1960

How:
Organizations:
1895:Boston Aeronautical Society, 1902-Aero Club of New England
1909:Harvard Aeronautical Society, 1910- Amherst, Williams and Tufts College Flying Clubs
1919:Harvard Flying Club, M.I.T. Aeronautical Society
1930s:The 99s, Quiet Birdmen, Daedalians, Wings Clubs, Civil Air Patrol, and hundreds of aircraft modelers clubs.
1940s:Tuskegee Airmen, Experimental Aircraft Association, Aircraft

Owners & Pilots Associaton, National Aeronautics Association, American Aviation Historical Society, ANA, Tailhook Assoc., MCAA and the AFA.

Universities:
Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory and Research Facilities
Boston University
Clark University
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Northeastern University
Wentworth Institute
Worcester Polytechnic Institute

(aero course development - laboratory experimentation, inertial guidance systems, instrument flight, RADAR, wind tunnel facilities, meteorological Research and Development, and the design, development and testing of the first world’s liquid fuel rocket)

Corporations:.
1910-1919:
Burgess, Sturtevant, Pigeon Hollow Spar, Whittemore-Hamm, Metz, and Springfield.
.
1929-1949:
Granville Brothers’ Gee Bees in Springfield, Moth and General Skyfarer in Lowell, Helio in Norwood.
.
1924- 2006:
Colonial Airways, B & M Airways, Mayflower Airlines, Northeast, PBA, Cape Air.
.
1930-present:
Raytheon- (Avionics), David Clark Company- (“G” & Space Suits), Wyman Gordon (Aircraft Metal Forging), Starr Compass (Instruments), General Electric (Turbo-superchargers-jet engines), Alden Research Laboratories (Propeller design and testing), New England Aircraft School and East Coast Aero Tech (Aviation Trades-Avionics).

Government:
Federal aviation regulation:
1914-1958: National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics
1927: CAA (Department of Commerce)
1958: Federal Aviation Administration and NASA

Massachusetts aviation regulators:
1915-1924: Massachusetts Department of Public Works
1924-1939: Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles
1939-2009: Massachusetts Aeronautics Commission
2009 - Massachusetts Department of Transportation

Military:
U.S. Army Air Service and Mass. Air National Guard-Boston, U.S. Air Force Otis Air Force Base, Westover Air Force Base, Strategic Air Command, Hanscom Air Force Base Electronic Systems Command, Joint Services Air Defense- Airborne Early Warning- Texas Towers- U.S. Army Aviation, Nike Missile Sites- U.S. Navy and U.S.M.C.,-Naval Air Station Squantum and Naval Air Station South Weymouth, U.S. Coast Gurad - Ten Pound Island, Gloucester, Salem and Cape Cod, Civil Air Patrol, and Ground Observer Corps, WASPS.